Chau Hoi-ying (left) leaves the High Court after testifying at the trial of his brother, Henry Chau. Photo: Edward Wong

A jobless man who allegedly dismembered the bodies of his parents in a Tai Kok Tsui flat last year had thought of killing his brother as well, a court heard yesterday.

Henry Chau, 30, shared his thoughts with a cousin, Siu Wing-kwan, in a rambling conversation on the night before police arrested him on March 15 last year.

He also said he had thought of travelling to the mainland to murder people, Siu testified as a prosecution witness in the Court of First Instance.

Before that meeting with Siu, Chau had called himself a "psychopath" who "cannot empathise with people's pain", in messages sent to friends via WhatsApp, prosecutors showed.

Chau and his friend Tse Chun-kei, 36, deny joint charges of murder over the deaths of Chau's parents, Chau Wing-ki, 65, and Siu Yuet-yee, 62, in Tse's home in March last year.

At yesterday's hearing, Siu said she had met Henry Chau in Tsim Sha Tsui. Chau told her he had originally planned to end his life before reaching 30, but after meeting a person he called "Ah Kei", he changed his mind and wanted to kill others instead.

"He had wanted to kill himself because he disliked his parents, who had too many expectations of him that he could not fulfil," Siu said.

"He claimed his father used to hit his brother, and his brother then hit him. So he also hated his brother.

"He thought of setting his brother as the next target, but gave up the idea eventually, as his brother had treated him well over the week."

Siu's understanding from the talk was that Chau had killed his parents, although he did not say much about it.

But he claimed to have tossed parts of the bodies into the sea. Those parts floated, so he changed his plan and put the remains in lunch boxes, throwing them away like rubbish, Siu cited Chau as saying.

"He told his story in a very calm manner," Siu said. "I got the feeling that he was quite proud of his disposal of the remains of the bodies without being found."

Chau had chosen to let Siu hear his story because she deserved to know the "truth" before the police did, the court heard.

On the afternoon before the two met, Chau sent WhatsApp messages telling friends about his killing of his parents - at the time he was giving a statement about their disappearance to police.

The court also heard from Henry Chau's brother, Chau Hoi-ying, 35, who said he heard their parents talk while he was still in bed on the morning of March 1.

It turned out to be the last time he would ever hear their voices.

Chau Hoi-ying approached his brother on March 5, worried about not having heard from their parents. Henry Chau claimed they had visited the mainland for leisure on March 2, and suggested the batteries in their phones had gone dry.

The elder brother called relatives and friends, then made a report to the police on March 9.

On their sibling ties, he admitted the two did not talk much to each other.

Their mother said her younger son had "something wrong in his mind", and that she was always trying to "get him out of the dark", Chau Hoi-ying said.

"He lives in his own world, thinking his own way. He thinks the world owes him," he said.

Chau Hoi-ying claimed his father hit the two siblings when they were as young as five or six years old, and that he hit his brother once when he was 11.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Brother ‘also in alleged killer’s sights’